One (1) of the most popular warm weather tourist destinations and activities is that of spending a warm day at the beach. Among the many activities that one can partake in at the beach, swimming and surfing are particularly popular. Over the years, there have been several new variations added to the surfing experience. One (1) of these variations is commonly called body boarding or boogie boarding in which a person lies down on their stomach on a small thin board and rides the wave into shore.
In addition to their conventional stomach-down use, body boards can be used for skimming along shallow water near a shoreline in order to run with the board and jump upon it to surf at the last minute. Such activities require a basic, but non-trivial, amount of balance and physical coordination. However, due to the fact that body boards appeal to a more general and casual crowd than surfing, many persons utilizing these boards are not as experienced or skilled as the average surfer. As a result, many persons utilizing these boards do not experience their full entertainment potential, or have trouble getting the boards to function at all.
Various attempts have been made to provide water sport boards with shapes or protrusions which affect the efficacy or operation of the board. Examples of these attempts can be seen by reference to several U.S. patents. U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,048, issued in the name of Marchese et al, describes a water board with a mechanized screw propeller which generates thrust in order to propel a user. The propeller is actuated using a hand lever located along both sides of the board.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,389,195, issued in the name of Sohaei, describes a steerable surfboard including a plurality of rudders located along a bottom surface of the board which are manually operable by a user.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,804,347, issued in the name of Ross, describes a method and structure for permanently installing fins to an underside of a surfboard.
Additionally, ornamental designs for a surfboard exist, particularly U.S. Pat. Nos. D 349,935; D 461,516; D 528,166; D 528,179; D 568,429; and D 570,945. However, none of these designs are similar to the present invention.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives, each of these references suffer from one (1) or more of the aforementioned disadvantages. Many such devices are not adapted for body boarding activities. Also, many such devices are more complicated to use than a conventional body board as they require additional activity on the part of the user during use. Furthermore, many such devices include complex mechanism which add cost and make the devices more difficult to transport. Accordingly, there exists a need for a water sport board without the disadvantages as described above. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.